Friday, February 10, 2012

The Big Game 2-9-12: Tough Night to Be a Gopher

It was a tough night to be a Minnesota Gopher. Again. The men and women both dug themselves into a deep hole. The men climbed back out of it, then ran out of gas as a Wisconsin team that failed to score in the final 7:37 of regulation exploded for 17 points in OT.

The women, well, their hole just got deeper and deeper, as Iowa held leads of up to 25 points. To say the Gophers rallied would be an overstatement, but they trailed by 17 when the final horn sounded.

Wisconsin men 68 Minnesota 61

The Gophers led only at 4-2 and 16-14, and only tied the score at 51-all deep in the heart of Texas. Wisconsin had led by as many as 13 at 42-29 and again at 49-36, and still led by 10 at 51-41 at 9:16. But the Badgers, amazingly, failed to score over the last 7:37 of regulation. Andre Hollins scored 6 of the Gophers last 10 points, and Austin Hollins hit a pair of throws at 1:02 to tie it at 51. Minnesota got the ball back at :28 and went for a final shot, but a jumper by Dre and another by Austin after an offensive rebound were both off the mark.

Too bad, because Bucky scored the first 6 points of OT and Minnesota never got closer than 4.

Jordan Taylor led Wisconsin with 27 points and 3 steals, while Ryan Evans had 17 and 11 boards. Dre scored 20 and Rodney Williams 16 for Minnesota. The Gophers out-shot Wisconsin 42 percent to 36, but Bucky hit more 3s (9-6) and many more FT (21-9), including 15-of-17 throws in OT.

Iowa women 75 Minnesota 59

The women never led as the host Hawkeyes ran out to leads of 11-4, 24-12, 39-21 and 40-25 at the half. Strangely, the FG were only 13-12 Iowa in the 1st half, but the Hawkeyes out-scored Minnesota 12-4 from 3-point land and 10-0 from the line.

Minnesota shot 50 percent in the 2nd half but it was a case of too little, too late. The Gophers scored the 1st 2 points of the 2nd half to get within 13, but never got closer and trailed by as many as 25 on 3 occasions.

As a sidebar, this marked the 1st of many match-ups of freshman point guards Rachel Banham and Samantha Logic, and tonight each scored 20 points. Logic added 9 points and 6 assists, but 8 turnovers. Banham added 6 boards but just 1 assist and 3 turnovers. Logic got a lot more help including 23 points from Morgan Johnson and 19 from Kamille Wahlin in her final regular season game against her home-state school. Iowa dominated the boards 43-26.

Player of the Day

So you'll have to pardon me if I look elsewhere for a player and a coach of the day. Player of the Day is Rashad Vaughan, the big sophomore forward from Robbinsdale Cooper, who scored 31 points in a rivalry game win over Robbinsdale Armstrong 79-70. Mitch Biewen scored 29 for Armstrong.

Coach of the Day

That would be Willie Braziel of Columbia Heights, who got the big upset of the day, 59-46 over #2AAA Spring Lake Park as the Hylanders held the Panthers' Sean Scott to just 8 points.

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History in the Making: About MinnesotaHoops.com

I co-wrote Minnesota Hoops in 2006 with my friend Stew Thornley. We were able to cover the 2006 season only in passing, and of course the book does not encompass the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Minnesota basketball seasons.

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